Planning a mini-Tour of Japan – by bike

Anna & I have been talking about going to Japan for ages so we started looking into it. Talking about flying over, staying in hotels and catching trains to see lots just wasn’t getting us excited but we couldn’t work out why. So we took a walk to clear our heads and work out what to do next.

Anna “I thought you wanted to see to Japan, you’ve been talking about going there for ages.”

Chris “Yes but I’ve always wanted to cycle around Japan and we’re only going for 2 weeks and getting around by train” (hadn’t booked anything at this stage)

Anna “I’d love to go there for longer. In fact why don’t we just bring bikes and do it?”

Chris “Can we? Brilliant, lets go!”

And so a new plan started to form and the more we talked about our trip, the more excited we became.

Fix them up in the bike workshop that Chris works in – free labour to repair, true wheels, re-use old parts and buy new tyres

Leave the tent at home and bring lightweight, easy to assemble hammocks instead:

Leave the cooking equipment behind and eat whatever we can find – its more fun when you meet people along the way.

Learn Japanese!

Cycle from Osaka, through Kyoto, along the north coast (hill dodging) through Kanazawa and onto the Noto peninsula. Then cut through the mountains via Nagano to Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park and on to Tokyo. Obviously this will likely change somewhat but its a start and gives us a very achievable 40km per day target.